Sunday, March 12, 2017

I've been a bad blogger. So bad. I hate when blogger people make excuses, and so I hate that now I'm going to give you excuses. . .

I have a job, now. A part time job. And I have no freaking clue how working moms get anything done, like, ever. And I only work part time. I have had to learn to let a tooooon of expectations go. Laundry not getting done on Monday Laundry Day? Oh well. It's never ending anyway. Daughter looks like a ragamuffin because she will not show any sort of hustle in the morning? C'est la vie.

I love this job, though. With all my heart and soul. I actually get paid to play the piano for the junior high. I get paid. To play the piano. And the kids are so so awesome and I am getting so much better musically. I know this is all sooo interesting! You're on the edge of your seats.

Everything that needs doing OR I'd like to do costs five bajillion million thousand dollars. Also, my house has hit that ripe old age of maturity where like, everything needs replacing. Do you know what I'm saying here?

I'm saying my house was built in the 90's, and everything has been fine. Not my fave, but, you know. Livable. Doable. But now. . .everything shows it's wear. Yes, we're pigs. The people who live here are just disgusting. Yes, we all sleep here and fight here and play here and cook here, and then there's the neighbors who like to live here, too, so things are just gonna start looking shabby, but . . .

I'm saying it's all the big things. Soon I'll need a new kitchen. Well, for the most part. My bathrooms. All of the them--- good heaven above my bathrooms are straight out of a horror movie. Frankly, it all is kind of overwhelming me. I just. . .can't right now.

Enter in this months project!!!

This is another one of these things that I've so, so so so wanted for us. But I knew it would cost a lot (it did), and I knew it would be a big ole pain (it was). All the flooring in the upstairs. All of it. Gone. I could cry happy tears. I think I actually did.

INCIDENTALLY!

This picture popped up on The Facebooks by three of my friends, on the same day. Cute little saying, huh?

It would be sooo cute if it weren't for that DISGUSTING CARPET. and that disgusting carpet IS MY OWN CARPET HELLO BECAUSE THIS IS MY FREAKING HOUSE. You don't have my permission, "whisper". Not at all.

That up there was a before photo of my stairs before I ripped the carpet off! I die. Humiliations galore. What's my point?

(Stairs now. Same-ish angle.)

My point is that all that cream carpet from hell really needed to go. And go it did.

The Jeffro and I -- we worked so hard. We hauled booty to tear all this stuff out and sweep up the dirt and pluck out the staples and crowbar up the tack strips. You've done this. You know. You empathize. Your eye is twitching just thinking about it. And the furniture removal! My kids were all, "It's like we're moving!" (whine, whine). It really was though. We played musical beds. Kids slept in various rooms while the work got done. It was funsies. Really messed up funsies.

Also. I love paying small amounts of money to watch people do the work I know I can do myself. It's so very choice.

Seriously-- if the Jeffro and I were to lay this stuff down, it would have taken us 2 weeks of intense work. because there were weird angles, closets, 4 bedrooms, and a really oddly shaped hallway. Of course we could have done it! We'd have been grouchy and mean and everything else would have gone to crap whilst we worked. . .

OR

we could pay the people to come in, work their butts off, do a great job because hey, it's what they do, and be done in two hard working days. And so we did. Because we aren't stupid all the time! Just typically!

(The only time my daughter's room has been clean. Since she could crawl.)

I love it. It's sooo much cleaner up here. So much. So. So. So much. The irony is not lost on me that I enjoy vacuuming and detest sweeping, however.

I know I'm not fooling you. I ain't fooling anyone. We actually went with Dark Hickory . . .LAMINATE. Dun dun dun. I love real hardwood ever so much. . . you know I do. It's my secret boyfriend. But let's be real: nobody really comes up here besides us, it's a quarter of the cost, and it's also a quarter of the cost.

16 comments:

Mandi your new floors look fabulous!!! And don't worry about sweeping - I got one of those little robot vacuums (second hand) and the kids know to turn it on every morning when we leave for school. Then I return to a vacuumed house (it sucks up the dust bunnies but doesn't seem to lift the beach sand - beggars can't be choosers!). Congrats on the new job! Cheers, Kate xx

My house is younger than yours, but the carpet is ever so much worse. Like, the previous owners must have kept livestock in here worse. but we can't afford to replace it yet, so I'll just live vicariously through you. Love the new floors!

Your floors look great! And I too have learned that sometimes, just sometimes it's WAAAAYYYY better to just fork over the cash to the pros and get the job done.Great to see a post from you - you always make me laugh.

Love, love, love it when there is a new post from you. You always make us laugh. Thanks for taking the time to let us into your life for a brief bit. Congratulations on the piano gig. That's amazing. How inspiring to go quickly from student to paid player! Oh, I hate sweeping too so I dyson stick vac all my wood floors - the floors don't seem to mind :)

I have missed your blog! I have four kids too, all boys, and I completely understand about them taking a toll on things. Including me! The last one is finishing up college and now and I can finally think about some renovations around here. I love your new floors and completely agree with you about having things done for you. We just had our hardwoods sanded and stained. Had we done them ourselves, we would have needed a good divorce attorney.

I love that you're getting paid to do something you love!! I want that, too - I just need to find someone to pay me to watch Netflix and read.. lol. The floors look great! Quick question: how do hardwood floors do in Utah? I've heard that they can crack from the lack of humidity? As for laundry, I've found that if you're really bad at it, someone else will take it over. (My husband is a saint, by the way.) ;)

Welcome back! The floors look great (quarter of the cost or not)! I was silently envious until I read the part about it being like moving...and then I decided my beige carpets can make it another year. I mean, my crawler just started walking so he has more damage to do before I put any real effort into making things spiffy, right? And congrats on the job!

Oh I know so well about having someone else to do the hard work! I, um, we, just had our kitchen completely redone. Cabinets, floor, popcorn ceiling, wall, opening doorway, black mold, all gone/done! We did some of the work, like demo. It's really was fun having my visiting teacher knock a wall out. I cleaned out the black mold- ripped out drywall & insulation. Basically we stripped the kitchen clean and had other people put it back together waaaayyy better than we could ever do. And a lot sooner.

Hubs did the vinyl planking. Which brings me to your floors, they look beautiful! Unfortunately they will show every light coloured piece of dirt. So we found out with our dark kitchen floor. Still looks good though.

The next job could be a garage or redo the bathroom before the tub ends up in the basement (what movie about renovating a house had a bathtub fall through the floor?).

Yeah, I know, how do working moms get all the stuff done that needs to be done, never mind the stuff we want to do?

Oh, so fun read your update! Congrats on the job! I dropped my freelancing job last year and started a genuine-work-in-an-45office job part time. This means I now get paid to work while my kids are in school instead of from 10 pm - 2 am or aaaaallll day on Saturday. Which has been good for me. But I hear you on not being able to get anything done anymore. Once I took a sick day because I honestly didn't feel good at 8 am, but at 10 am the motivation to use an unexpected day off to clean cured me and when my kids got home they were like, "Gee, Mom, you should get sick more often!"

You haven't posted in months and I hope all is well. Miss reading about you and yours. How is life? Did you do another Cousin Carnival? Your pond? Your flower beds? Your Christmas tree? Yes, that is a ways back but it's been so long.